Invader (Foreigner #2)
Jun. 28th, 2021 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustBy CJ Cherryh. Starting my reread here, because the first book, Foreigner, is pretty much the setup, and all the rest of the series is the fallout. And it's the fallout that has me excited.
Not sure how much I can say without spoiling the first book, but basically a lost human starship finds refuge on a world with an existing alien civilisation. They live side by side until slowly growing misunderstandings ignite a war, after which they appoint a single human translator - the paidhi - as the sole point of contact between them, to prevent this from ever happening again. Two hundred years later, peace and prosperity and progress are coming along nicely. And then Something Happens to shake up that status quo and alter the path of the future.
I said once that I thought Explorer might be my fave, but Invader might actually overtake it. It has all the things I love best about this series - basically Bren doing his thing: navigating between different cultures, constructing brilliant speeches, and translating high stakes conversations on the fly. And his role is not just translating - it's also explaining and negotiating and advocating. Being Bren, he is also suffering the aftermath of injuries, his personal life is imploding, he risks being considered a traitor by both sides - and meanwhile the world stands at the edge of a precipice.
Invader has some of my favourite scenes and most memorable moments in the series:
- Bren making his big speech to the legislature, getting shot at by the assassin, and then apologising on reflex.
- Barb's breakup message - so much emotional devastation in so few words - and Bren's stunned reaction, and trying to hide his distress so as not to alarm the atevi.
- The painful arm cast he suffers stoically through for so much of the book. (And then his outrage when he discovers it was unnecessary and he should have just read the damn instructions.)
I guess I like seeing Bren pushed to his limits, and being discomposed, and getting emotional.
So much happens! (In contrast to some of the later books, which could have been compressed.) I had forgotten this was the book where assassins shot up the treasured lilies, and where we had the famous pizza party.
We meet Deana Hanks, paidhi in waiting, who clashes with Bren right away. His scathing critique of her political supporters - the conservative, pro-human, anti-atevi, Heritage Party - is still distressingly relevant today.
We meet Damiri, Tabini's lover from a rival clan, who has openly declared her alliance with him. We meet Geigi, the scientific atevi lord, whose support Bren must regain by finding an explanation for FTL. And Jago makes the first move, expressing interest in Bren - romantically? sexually? Bren has no idea how it works for atevi!
We finally meet Barb, at least in conversation over the phone, and not just as Bren's idealised image. It's kind of ridiculous how drastically he goes from thinking about how kind and gentle she is, to admitting her flaws, to being totally fed up with everything. (And on the other hand, she has a damn good point that, on the mainland, he's insulated from the prejudice and hostility that, on Mospheira, she and his family have to face due to his job.) Also, he's 27, she's 25. They're so damn young, no wonder they had trouble dealing with their relationship issues and end up outgrowing each other. (Another sign of age - I swear I was younger than Bren when I started reading this series.)
We meet Captain Ramirez, if briefly, and we meet Jase Graham, who presents himself as a teacher and scholar, and whom Bren pictures as a gentle academic, fearing he will get eaten alive by politics. (Little did he know.)
And there is so much Bren and Tabini! Private audiences, tests of loyalty, and even hanging out in the hunting lodge at Taiben. I miss that.
There's probably more I've overlooked, but this book is dense. I feel like if you read just one Foreigner book, this is the one that encapsulates so much of what made the series so beloved.
Not sure how much I can say without spoiling the first book, but basically a lost human starship finds refuge on a world with an existing alien civilisation. They live side by side until slowly growing misunderstandings ignite a war, after which they appoint a single human translator - the paidhi - as the sole point of contact between them, to prevent this from ever happening again. Two hundred years later, peace and prosperity and progress are coming along nicely. And then Something Happens to shake up that status quo and alter the path of the future.
I said once that I thought Explorer might be my fave, but Invader might actually overtake it. It has all the things I love best about this series - basically Bren doing his thing: navigating between different cultures, constructing brilliant speeches, and translating high stakes conversations on the fly. And his role is not just translating - it's also explaining and negotiating and advocating. Being Bren, he is also suffering the aftermath of injuries, his personal life is imploding, he risks being considered a traitor by both sides - and meanwhile the world stands at the edge of a precipice.
Invader has some of my favourite scenes and most memorable moments in the series:
- Bren making his big speech to the legislature, getting shot at by the assassin, and then apologising on reflex.
- Barb's breakup message - so much emotional devastation in so few words - and Bren's stunned reaction, and trying to hide his distress so as not to alarm the atevi.
- The painful arm cast he suffers stoically through for so much of the book. (And then his outrage when he discovers it was unnecessary and he should have just read the damn instructions.)
I guess I like seeing Bren pushed to his limits, and being discomposed, and getting emotional.
So much happens! (In contrast to some of the later books, which could have been compressed.) I had forgotten this was the book where assassins shot up the treasured lilies, and where we had the famous pizza party.
We meet Deana Hanks, paidhi in waiting, who clashes with Bren right away. His scathing critique of her political supporters - the conservative, pro-human, anti-atevi, Heritage Party - is still distressingly relevant today.
We meet Damiri, Tabini's lover from a rival clan, who has openly declared her alliance with him. We meet Geigi, the scientific atevi lord, whose support Bren must regain by finding an explanation for FTL. And Jago makes the first move, expressing interest in Bren - romantically? sexually? Bren has no idea how it works for atevi!
We finally meet Barb, at least in conversation over the phone, and not just as Bren's idealised image. It's kind of ridiculous how drastically he goes from thinking about how kind and gentle she is, to admitting her flaws, to being totally fed up with everything. (And on the other hand, she has a damn good point that, on the mainland, he's insulated from the prejudice and hostility that, on Mospheira, she and his family have to face due to his job.) Also, he's 27, she's 25. They're so damn young, no wonder they had trouble dealing with their relationship issues and end up outgrowing each other. (Another sign of age - I swear I was younger than Bren when I started reading this series.)
We meet Captain Ramirez, if briefly, and we meet Jase Graham, who presents himself as a teacher and scholar, and whom Bren pictures as a gentle academic, fearing he will get eaten alive by politics. (Little did he know.)
And there is so much Bren and Tabini! Private audiences, tests of loyalty, and even hanging out in the hunting lodge at Taiben. I miss that.
There's probably more I've overlooked, but this book is dense. I feel like if you read just one Foreigner book, this is the one that encapsulates so much of what made the series so beloved.
